Sentencing disparaties for crack cocaine

By Sam Ford
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Susan Cardwell waited as the Greyhound pulled up to Woodbridge station Wednesday afternoon with her brother Darryl who left federal prison in Ashland Kentucky last night. It was their first reunion in a decade.

Darryl Flood, 48, is one of the first released under the crack-cocaine amnesty program :

"I just think the law was wrong to begin with. It was a little harsh you know. I was in the wrong in the first place"

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute crack in Alexandria in 2002. He's now out two years early.

Flood is one of the relative few crack cocaine inmates who is white. Most are black.

The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group, says the old law mandating more time for crack than powder cocaine was racially biased and filled the prisons with non-dangerous people

Of inmates released thus far, 10 are from D.C. while 17 from Virginia and three from Maryland.

Since Flood went to prison, their mother and sister died. He missed both funerals.